Land tax to prevent Zimbabwe crisis

Namibia is to introduce land tax legislation in an effort to prevent the country from falling into the same trap as neighbouring Zimbabwe, where hundreds of white-owned farms were invaded by war veterans, ‘The Namibian’ said on Friday. Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation Minister Pendukeni Ithana was quoted as saying that the issue would be resolved once the Land Taxation Bill was enacted. However, the minister warned that, if the pressure from the landless became too great, the government would be forced to expropriate land. “It is allowed in our constitution, provided that this is done in public interest, though it is an expensive exercise for the government to do as it has to compensate those whose land is expropriated,” Ithana said. “Definitely, it is a good way of getting to the root cause of inflated prices by commercial farmers and to those who own land just for the sake of owning it,” she said.